Kaira has insomnia as a result of a series of job and romantic setbacks. She consults Dr. Jehangir Khan, a psychotherapist who treats her in unusual ways. With its superficial humor, sarcasm and detachment, and emotional numbing, modern Indian society look down on vulnerability.

It is encouraging and refreshing to see a popular Bollywood film starring Bollywood actors discuss mental health so that it doesn’t gloss over the finer points.

Dear Zindagi also explores the shortcomings of a ‘family’ that is otherwise wrapped in beauty and placed on a pedestal from which we cannot point out defects. Dear Zindagi, quotes have helped us relate to a whole new level.

Some films are more than just entertainment; they become catalysts for people to think about life in new ways. One such film is Dear Zindagi.

It is a love letter to life that’s been waiting to be written for a long time. And we’re grateful to director Gauri Shinde for bringing order to the chaos we face daily.

Gauri encourages us all to love our imperfect, messy, and flawed existence in Dear Zindagi. April marks the third anniversary of the film’s debut, so we have compiled a list of some quotes from Dear Zindagi that made us pause and reflect on various aspects of life.

One of the most relatable Dear Zindagi quotes goes like this:

Success isn’t always about difficult paths. It is not about how much you punish yourself. It is about when you’re determined to undertake it: (from Dear Zindagi quotes)

A famous scientist, Albert Einstein, once said that one has gone mad when one repeats the same work every day, expecting the result to change.

Accepting your own self is bigger than what others think you to be: (another Dear Zindagi quote)

One who has the answer to everything isn’t a genius. One that has the patience to do everything is:

You need to cry openly to laugh selflessly: (another excerpt from Dear Zindagi quotes in Hindi)

A habit that has developed over time should be thought over and over again because a genius should know when to stop it:

The steering wheel of your car, aka Life, should be in control of you. Otherwise, some other driver can take hold of it:

We always seek options before selecting a chair. Then why can’t that apply for life partners as well?

Dear Zindagi, quotes in Hindi are quite beautiful too.

Life is similar to a jigsaw puzzle. People are like the missing pieces and can only help you connect. But you, only you, can complete it! (relatable Dear Zindagi quotes)

Some instances of exemplary Dear Zindagi Quotes in English are as follows:

“Losing friends as you grow up is a sign of growing up.”

“Safe feel karne ke liye pehle saare dar mitana zaroori hai!“

Every individual’s life is like a rollercoaster ride with numerous ups and downs, but how we recover from our setbacks is entirely up to us.

“We are the creators of our destiny and the destroyers of our lives; it is all in our hands,” a famous personality once stated. If we become stranded in a predicament, we have one special person who always acts as our mentor or guide and rides our boat to the beach; everyone needs someone to save them at some point in their lives. In the film Dear Zindagi, Kaira (Alia Bhatt) was in a similar circumstance, and Dr. Jahangir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) came to her rescue by teaching her some crucial life lessons. It is one of the exceptional Dear Zindagi Quotes in English.

We have learned all the wrong ways of expressing emotions. How can we expect to express love when the entire concept of emotion is fouled.

Even the songs give us a sense of positivity: Dear Zindagi quotes in the form of songs.

“Jo dil se lage

Usey keh do Hi, Hi, Hi

Jo dil na lage

Usey keh do bye, bye, bye

Aane do, aane do

Dil mein aa jaane do

Keh do muskurahat ko

Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi

Jaane de, jaane do

Dil se chale jaane do

Keh do ghabrahat ko

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye…

Love you Zindagi

Love me Zindagi.”

Gauri Shinde returns with Dear Zindagi, a female protagonist-centered story that tries to unsettle tropes in our judging society four years after her well-received debut with English Vinglish. Dear Zindagi, quotes are relatable on a whole different level and way. They are bound to motivate you.

Dear Zindagi quotes, starring Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan as her psychiatrist, is about Kaira (Alia), an ambitious cinematographer who works on minor advertising and projects but dreams of shooting a full-length feature film. Kaira’s confident banter and hands-on body language in the opening segment inform us that she is very talented and knows her profession well.

However, she is unsure if she is being offered a big break in a feature film because of her talent or because one of the co-producers finds her attractive. Raghuvendra (Kunal Kapoor), the co-producer, is also the one with whom Kaira is having an affair with her present boyfriend, Sid (Angad Bedi).

Soon, we learn about Kaira and her issues: a career woman who isn’t sure if she should be grateful for her talent or hunt for possibilities, and one who is struggling with heartbreak when a gentleman dumped her for another female.

After being evicted by her landlord because “she is single,” she decides to return to her hometown of Goa. Because she has a tense relationship with her parents, the prospect of living with them makes her even sadder. It sounds like something I might relate to. Kaira decides to meet a ‘dimag ka doctor called DD’ to help her deal with everything.

When Shah Rukh Khan walks into the scene, the frame is filled with his charisma and charm. The psychiatrist who treats Shah Rukh is kind, charming, and amusing. The film then follows Kaira’s sessions with Dr. Jehangir Khan or Jug, who gives her advice on life, relationships, dealing with one’s feelings, and keeping happy, among other things. It may have been as inspiring and compelling a story as Gauri’s debut (Sridevi-starrer English Vinglish), but it lags far short.

Kaira’s description of her own anxieties and flaws to Jug is surreal. Cliches abound in the discourse, which does not come off as natural. It is a tough fight to make it sound believable with Dear Zindagi quotes like a stoned character stating, “Genius wo nahi hota jiske paas sab sawaal ke jawaab hon, genius wo hota hai jiske paas jawaab tak pahunchne ka patience ho,” or a psychiatrist saying “We are all our own teachers in the school of life.”

There is a lot of banter that is supposed to be deep and philosophical in the film but is just plain, shallow banter. On the other hand, Gauri shows off her talent in her second picture, portraying a professionally strong and straightforward female protagonist who isn’t afraid to inform her partner that she cheated on him and even apologizes.

The film also marks another milestone in Bollywood filmmaking, as practically the whole plot is placed within the confines of a psychiatrist’s office, shattering stereotypes about mental illness. The best part is that Kaira isn’t depressed; she just went to the therapist since she hadn’t slept in three days.

Alia confronts her family near the end of the film and talks about all the concerns she has been battling – a scene that is eerily similar to one from Imtiaz Ali’s Highway (2014). Alia is equally at ease as a clever professional and as a scared young girl.

While Aditya, Kunal, and Ali Zafar, who play her loves or boyfriends, are more like guest performers than fully fleshed-out characters, Kunal Kapoor stands out among the youngsters and portrays his role with finesse. Shah Rukh Khan contributes his charisma and experience to the part, and Jug’s wits make him unique.

However, the storyline and language detract from the film’s overall excellence. Another aspect that did not work is when Kaira needs yet another love relationship to fall back on, despite the film’s overall message that romance isn’t the be-all and end-all in life.

This might have been a magnificent “slice-of-life” picture with various themes to be commended if Gauri had brought better-etched characters and dived further into the inner turmoils of her hero. She finishes up with a film that “could-have-been-amazing.”

Yet one of the most encouraging aspects of Gauri Shinde’s film—her second following the critically acclaimed English Vinglish in 2012—is its emphasis that seeing a shrink isn’t unusual. Kaira is seeking therapy because she is having difficulties sleeping, not because she is depressed or hearing voices. She urges her frightened home help over Skype to think of Jug as a dimaag ka doctor, someone to whom they can confide their issues.

She questions her family why It is appropriate to state you’re seeing a doctor but not a mental health specialist in a more heated moment. It is a minor setback, but the thousands of Indians seeking psychiatric assistance will likely be glad for a film articulating these issues’ common truths.

Dear Zindagi takes its time putting its main character on the couch. We learn that Kaira is cheating on her lover, Sid (Angad Bedi), with a coworker, Raghu (Kunal Kapoor), whom she loves but keeps at arm’s length in the film’s opening sequence, which takes place in Mumbai. She flees both relationships and travels to Goa, where she becomes entangled in an equally tense tug-of-war with her overly anxious parents.

It is not often that a Hindi film features a sexually liberated, commitment-phobic, parent-averse female character. When Jug inquires about Kaira’s lovers, she suddenly snaps, accusing him of mentally slut-shaming her (One of Khan’s best scenes in the film is his agonized reaction.)

There is not much that upsets Dear Zindagi’s calm surface, notwithstanding a few well-worked-out traumas. I understand the need to portray Kaira, a budding cinematographer, as more than capable, but having her advise a director on reshooting his final sequence and appreciating the advice is such far-fetched borders on science fiction.

A token gay character whose single big scene appears to exist solely demonstrates Kaira’s calm demeanor. Goa appears to be both attractive and uninteresting, like a picture postcard. The photography of Laxman Utekar is slick and impersonal, and the music of Amit Trivedi is uninspiring and overused.

At moments, we wished the movie would swerve a little more. Another film about family secrets, Kapoor & Sons, was another Dharma movie that didn’t let its scenic setting or devastatingly pretty cast stand in the way of unpleasant confrontation. One such explosion appears in Dear Zindagi, but It is clumsily written and serves primarily as an opportunity for Alia to make a huge shout scene. Shinde tries a few new Bollywood tactics, such as interspersing songs with short sequences, but there’s little to get the pulse beating, let alone increase it.

Some of the selections are just plain ridiculous, such as the one who says “Lebanese” when he means “lesbian,” or the man who says “Lebanese” when he means “lesbian,” is the scene in which Kaira, enraged by Raghu, smashes ragu bottles.

In the midst of it all, Bhatt shines. The small decisions she makes within situations, like toying with the furniture or twitching her lip, make her such a captivating actor. Shah Rukh Khan carries the character of Jug with star power, yet his mountaineer narrative pales in comparison to his co-star talking about herself in the third person earlier in the sequence.

Bhatt has a rare capacity to make her characters’ emotional judgments appear as if they came to her spontaneously. To put it another way, she gives the idea that she’s winging it, which makes even the most mundane moments she’s in really thrilling.

Alia, who is sad, bites on a green chili in a scene from the film. “The chili is pungent,” she remarks to her best friend Fatima (Ira Dubey) as her eyes glaze over. Tears, stupid anxieties, and frailties are all a part of life. So we pretend to be brave. This is essentially the message that writer-director Gauri Shinde’s second directorial picture conveys in the Dear Zindagi dialogue.

Unlike her debut film, English Vinglish, which hit the target discreetly, the message is pounded home. Of course, some of the work is worthwhile. There are several amusing and witty one-liners. Many comparisons have been created to explain the plethora of relationships encountered in today’s fast-paced metropolitan life.

Some of it will make you laugh, while others will make you cry. So far, everything has gone well. The first half of the film, on the other hand, rambles and makes you restless. Things start to look better right before intermission when SRK makes an entrance without his usual outstretched arms.

As previously stated, Alia’s protagonist flits from Raghuvendra (Kunal) to Sid (Angad) and then to Rumi like a butterfly (Ali). There’s also a backstory to explain why she’s so messed up. To be honest, her angst bites a little, but not fully.

Alia takes an appointment with SRK, a DD (dimaag ka doctor) in Goa, to figure out why she is the way she is. She can express her anxieties while sitting on his couch. The video helps the audience to confront some of their worries as he methodically gathers up the pieces of her past and ‘pieces’ her together. So It is not all for naught.

Alia, who is one of the better actors of her generation, gives a well-balanced performance. And SRK, in his sober persona, tempts you to seek out a therapist with his limitless gyaan. This film could help you do some soul-searching this weekend if you’re in the mood.

In Basu Chatterjee’s Chhoti Si Baat, a shy Amol Palekar received love lessons from Ashok Kumar to assert himself and his ardor for Vidya Sinha in 1975. In Nikhil Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho, an angelic Shah Rukh Khan strolled into the picture in slow motion, flashed his dimples, spread his arms, and restored color to Preity Zinta’s drab life.

In Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi, SRK reprises his role as Dr. Jehangir Khan, who helps Kaira sort out her complicated relationships (Aalia Bhatt). Only Shinde uses the terrible T-word — therapy — to explain things, which many of us, like Kaira, may sorely need in our urban loneliness and breakdowns but are unwilling to seek.

Shinde may not be at the top of her game in Dear Zindagi, but by casting Bhatt and SRK in important roles, she wins a significant portion of the war. Despite the film being a “talkie” with a little diversion from the extended dialogues, the give and go between the two leads feels effortless (even if the writing feels clunky) and keeps the audience interested.

You laugh and cry with Bhatt’s Kaira, and at moments you just want to reach out and give her a big embrace, comforting her that everything will be fine. SRK has a sexy (for lack of a better word) beard (which he should have in every film from now on), lets his greys play peek-a-boo (two thumbs up), and wears a fantastic range of cotton and linen shirts and trousers (men of a particular vintage look great in them) but becomes purposefully quiet in his body lingo rather than being the bundle of energy that he usually is; exhibits deliberate pain in his eyes rather than being perpetually cheery.

That’s a great avatar for him to have progressed to, visually speaking, for us senior citizen women. Hopefully, some restless young ones will agree and miss a heartbeat, particularly after hearing his performance of the Italian opera.

The Dear Zindagi dialogue is rarely natural, and it frequently devolves into triteness. Lines like “every damaged thing can be mended” (really! ), “don’t allow the past blackmail the present to harm a lovely future” (oh, so long-winded!), and “don’t let the past blackmail the present to ruin a beautiful future” (oh, so long-winded!) and why we select the more difficult path even when there is an easier choice (is there one?).

On the other hand, the writing appears to be well-tied to SRK’s sense of humor at moments. When Kaira admits that life is an endless musical when it comes to the new singer guy in her life, SRK’s Dr. Khan responds with a lighthearted remark: “Aur tumhein to conversation pasand hain (You adore dialogues).” When he says, “We are all our own, teachers in the school of life” and then come back with “ye kuchh zyada heavy ho gaya (It is too heavy-handed)”.

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